TBT: Brian Vickers' Emotional Comeback

Brian Vickers won at NHMS in 2013 for his first NASCAR victory in four years.
NHMS/HHP

Vickers Remembers Special Win at NHMS

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TitleVickers Remembers Special Win at NHMS

DescriptionAs Brian Vickers prepares for another return from heart surgery this weekend, he recalls his 2013 win at NHMS, his first win following his previous surgery.

This year, New Hampshire Motor Speedway celebrates its 25th Anniversary. Throughout the year as part of that celebration, the Granite Stripe will throw it back on Thursday and give a small history lesson on past events at the track.

This coming weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Brian Vickers will get back in a race car for the first time since open-heart surgery this past December. It wasn't the first of such type of a procedure for Vickers, who missed the majority of the 2010 season after surgery to repair a hole in his heart.

Vickers returned to full-time racing after that procedure in 2011, only to find out that his team, Red Bull Racing, would be closing up shop after the season. The move would leave Vickers in a part-time ride share for the No. 55 car at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2012-13.

It was from this position that he returned to victory lane for the first time since 2009 on July 14, 2013, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Vickers was hardly considered a favorite to win the Camping World RV Sales 301 that day. Pole sitter Brad Keselowski took the lead on four separate occasions, Kurt Busch led a race high 102 laps, and Tony Stewart led 84 laps late in the race before Vickers overtook him for his first and only lead with 16 laps to go.

In fact, Vickers was more or less a forgotten man for much of the day, running in the 20-something positions throughout the middle part of the race before making a sudden jump from 24th on Lap 210 to fifth on Lap 225. Once he was up there, Vickers and crew chief Rodney Childers kept the car